High Court orders RTÉ to hand over undercover footage

The High Court has ordered RTÉ to hand over all its undercover footage that was filmed in two nursing homes to the body responsible for monitoring and regulating these premises.

Ms Justice Emily Egan granted the order sought by HIQA for "the complete unedited footage" to be provided by the broadcaster.

The footage was gathered by RTÉ during an investigation into standards of care at Beneavin Manor in Dublin and The Residence in Portlaoise, Co Laois.

Some of the footage was included on RTÉ Investigates: Inside Ireland's Nursing Homes.

Lawyers for the Chief Inspector of Social Services at HIQA had previously told the court that the programme showed examples of what appeared to be serious misconduct at two nursing homes.

Ms Justice Egan said that the disclosure of the complete unedited footage was "necessary" for several reasons including to confirm whether other wrongdoing is revealed in the unedited footage.

She said the edited broadcast material provides a strong case that there have been breaches of statutory duty but it is not enough to support a broad regulatory approach.

She referred to a strong public interest in permitting the chief inspector to have access to the maximum amount of material.

The High Court judge said the order is one which RTÉ can easily comply with and "proportionate" to the objective around facilitating a regulatory investigation.

"On the particular facts of this case, it would be illogical to hold that RTÉ should not release the material to the chief inspector to facilitate the regulatory investigation which it has itself called for," she said.

In addressing concerns around GDPR, she said that in her view, data protection and privacy rights of the alleged wrongdoers are overridden by the urgent need of regulatory investigation.

Ms Justice Egan advised that Section 84 prohibits the unauthorised disclosure of confidential information by HIQA.

The chief inspector will therefore be subject to appropriate legal constraints in respect of any onward disclosure of the complete unedited footage.

Following the broadcast of the RTÉ programme in 2025, the Chief Inspector of Social Services at HIQA had writtten to the Director General of RTÉ seeking the complete and unedited footage, stating it was necessary to determine appropriate regulatory action.

RTÉ accepted the seriousness of the issues but declined to release the footage voluntarily, stating that a court order was necessary if any footage was to be handed over.

The court was previously told that RTÉ was neither consenting nor objecting to the order being made.